The Novi Sad raid (Serbian Cyrillic: Рација) also known as the Raid in southern Bačka , the Novi Sad massacre , the Újvidék massacre , (or simply The Raid ) was a massacre carried out by the Királyi Honvédség , the armed forces of Hungary , during World War II , after the Hungarian occupation and annexation of former Yugoslav territories. It resulted in the deaths of 3,000–4,000 civilians in the southern Bačka (Bácska) region.
150-606: The Hungarian army, under the orders of pro-German officers who violated independence of Hungarian military leadership (according to the precise instructions of the German command), committed the Novi Sad massacre; these Hungarian officers refused to follow the commands of the Hungarian military leadership since the beginnings of the military operations in Voivodine. The Hungarian government ordered
300-634: A guerrilla campaign which enjoyed gradually increased levels of success and support of the general populace, and succeeded in controlling large chunks of Yugoslav territory. These were managed via the "People's committees", organized to act as civilian governments in areas of the country controlled by the communists, even limited arms industries were set up. At the very beginning, Partisan forces were relatively small, poorly armed and without any infrastructure. They had two major advantages over other military and paramilitary formations in former Yugoslavia: Occupying and quisling forces, however, were quite aware of
450-645: A campaign that involved the posting of "Republic of Vojvodina" posters in Novi Sad . Vojvodina is situated in the northern quarter of Serbia , in Central Europe. In the southeast part of the Pannonian Plain , the plain that remained when the Pliocene Pannonian Sea dried out. As a consequence of this, Vojvodina is rich in fertile loamy loess soil , covered with a layer of chernozem . The region
600-751: A dread signal from Budapest that Hungarian rule over non-Hungarians in the Balkans ;... would be every bit as brutal as that of ... other occupying powers, or, for that matter, as it had previously been in Hungarian-occupied Serbia during the Great War." Accordingly, further guerrilla attacks were orchestrated by the occupational authorities in order to magnify the size of the Partisan resistance. Bandages were distributed to gendarmes, and they were instructed to wear them on their heads and hands to simulate
750-472: A heroic resistance against formidable odds and in doing so you are proving true to your great traditions. Serbs, we know you. You were our allies in the last war and your armies are covered with glory. Croats and Slovenes, we know your military history. For centuries you were the bulwark of Christianity. Your fame as warriors spread far and wide on the Continent. One of the finest incidents in the history of Croatia
900-743: A joint operation known as the Belgrade Offensive . At the onset of winter, the Partisans effectively controlled the entire eastern half of Yugoslavia – Serbia, Vardar Macedonia and Montenegro , as well as the Dalmatian coast. In 1945, the Partisans, numbering over 800,000 strong defeated the Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia and the Wehrmacht , achieving a hard-fought breakthrough in
1050-569: A mountain village, the Partisans formed the Kopaonik Partisan Detachment Headquarters. The area they controlled, consisting of nearby villages, was called the "Miners Republic" and lasted 42 days. The resistance fighters formally joined the ranks of the Partisans later on. At the September 1941 Stolice conference , the unified name partisans and the red star as an identification symbol were adopted for all fighters led by
1200-790: Is between the Danube and the Drava ) is in Hungary and Croatia. Vojvodina has a total surface area of 21,500 km (8,300 sq mi). Vojvodina is also part of the Danube-Kris-Mures-Tisa euroregion . The Gudurica peak (Gudurički vrh) on the Vršac Mountains , is the highest peak in Vojvodina, at an altitude of 641 m above sea level. The climate of the area is moderate continental, including cold winters and hot and humid summers. The Vojvodina climate
1350-441: Is characterized by a vast range of extreme temperatures and very irregular rainfall distribution per month. The Assembly of Vojvodina is the provincial legislature composed of 120 proportionally elected members. The current members were elected in the 2020 provincial elections . The Government of Vojvodina is the executive administrative body composed of a president and cabinet ministers. The current ruling coalition in
1500-841: Is divided by the Danube and Tisa rivers into: Bačka in the northwest, Banat in the east and Syrmia (Srem) in the southwest. A small part of the Mačva region is also located in Vojvodina south of the Sava river, in the Srem District . Today, the western part of Syrmia is in Croatia , the northern part of Bačka is in Hungary , the eastern part of Banat is in Romania (with a small piece in Hungary), while Baranja (which
1650-853: Is the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina . Its name in the province's six official languages is: In the Neolithic period, two important archaeological cultures flourished in this area: the Starčevo culture and the Vinča culture . Indo-European peoples first settled in the territory of present-day Vojvodina in 3200 BC. During the Eneolithic period, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age , several Indo-European archaeological cultures were centered in or around Vojvodina, including
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#17328524759521800-466: Is the one when, in the 16th Century, long before the French Revolution, the peasants rose to defend the rights of man, and fought for those principles which centuries later gave the world democracy. Yugoslavs, you are fighting for those principles today. The British Empire is fighting with you, and behind us is the great democracy of the U.S.A., with its vast and ever-increasing resources. However hard
1950-551: The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina , is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia , located in Central Europe. It lies within the Pannonian Basin , bordered to the south by the national capital Belgrade and the Sava and Danube Rivers. The administrative centre, Novi Sad , is the second-largest city in Serbia. The historic regions of Banat , Bačka , Syrmia and northernmost part of Mačva overlap
2100-614: The Banat , which became an autonomous district of the German-occupied territory of Serbia , primarily to satisfy the demands of the region's sizeable ethnic German ( Volksdeutsche ) population. The Croatians occupied Syrmia and incorporated it into the NDH, stopping just short of Belgrade . The Hungarians occupied Bačka , which had been a part of Hungary until the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, when it
2250-509: The Chetniks , were the retention of the Yugoslav monarchy , ensuring the safety of ethnic Serb populations, and the establishment of a Greater Serbia through the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs from territories they considered rightfully and historically Serbian. Relations between the two movements were uneasy from the start, but from October 1941 they degenerated into full-scale conflict. To
2400-626: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded from all sides by the Axis powers, primarily by German forces, but also including Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian formations. During the invasion, Belgrade was bombed by the Luftwaffe . The invasion lasted little more than ten days, ending with the unconditional surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army on 17 April. Besides being hopelessly ill-equipped when compared to
2550-603: The Magyars and took part in the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian basin including what is now Vojvodina in 895–907.) Following territorial disputes with Byzantine and Bulgarian states, most of Vojvodina became part of the Kingdom of Hungary between the 10th and 12th century and remained under Hungarian administration until the 16th century (Following periods of Ottoman and Habsburg administrations, Hungarian political dominance over most of
2700-643: The Orthodox Christian victims of the raid along with the victims of other Axis crimes committed in Bačka between 1941 and 1942 as the "Holy Martyrs of Bačka". Yugoslav Partisans Former Axis powers: Other Allied factions: Other Allied support: Other Axis collaborators: Other opponents: The Yugoslav Partisans , or the National Liberation Army , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia ,
2850-739: The Syrmian front in late winter, taking Sarajevo in early April, and the rest of the NDH and Slovenia through mid-May. After taking Rijeka and Istria , which were part of Italy before the war, they beat the Allies to Trieste by two days. The "last battle of World War II in Europe", the Battle of Poljana , was fought between the Partisans and retreating Wehrmacht and quisling forces at Poljana, near Prevalje in Carinthia , on 14–15 May 1945. The Axis invasion led to
3000-621: The Ustashe regime's mass killings as genocide of the Serbs , including Raphael Lemkin . In 1942, in the Novi Sad Raid , a military operation carried out by the Királyi Honvédség , the armed forces of Hungary , during World War II , after occupation and annexation of former Yugoslav territories. It resulted in the deaths of 3,000–4,000 civilians in the southern Bačka (Bácska) region. Under
3150-519: The Ustaše militias and the German army. Amid the relative chaos that ensued, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia moved to organize and unite anti-fascist factions and political forces into a nationwide uprising. The party, led by Josip Broz Tito , was banned after its significant success in the post-World War I Yugoslav elections and operated underground since. Tito, however, could not act openly without
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#17328524759523300-902: The Vučedol culture , the Vatin culture , and the Bosut culture , among others. Before the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC, Indo-European peoples of Illyrian , Thracian and Celtic origin inhabited this area. The first states organized in this area were the Celtic State of the Scordisci (3rd century BC-1st century AD) with capital in Singidunum ( Belgrade ), and the Dacian Kingdom of Burebista (1st century BC). During Roman rule, Sirmium (modern Sremska Mitrovica )
3450-507: The Wehrmacht , the Army attempted to defend all borders but only managed to thinly spread the limited resources available. The terms of the capitulation were extremely severe, as the Axis proceeded to dismember Yugoslavia. Germany occupied the northern part of Drava Banovina (roughly modern-day Slovenia ), while maintaining direct military occupation of a rump Serbian territory with a puppet government. The Independent State of Croatia (NDH)
3600-462: The Wiesenthal Center made public copies of a 1944 court verdict finding Sándor Képíró and 14 other Hungarian military and police officers of taking part in 1942 raid in Novi Sad. In 1948, the government of Hungary retried him in absentia and sentenced him to 14 years. This verdict was based upon the testimony of János Nagy, a former Hungarian soldier of Képíró's platoon. However, the testimony
3750-665: The regular armed force of the newly established Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia . One of two objectives of the movement, which was the military arm of the Unitary National Liberation Front (UNOF) coalition, led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) and represented by the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), the Yugoslav wartime deliberative assembly ,
3900-633: The war in Croatia in persecution of Croats in Serbia during Yugoslav Wars was organized and participated in the expulsion of the Croats in some places in Vojvodina. Based on an investigation by the Humanitarian Law Fund from Belgrade in the course of June, July, and August 1992, more than 10,000 Croats from Vojvodina exchanged their property for the property of Serbs from Croatia, and altogether about 20,000 Croats left Serbia. According to other estimations,
4050-457: The "Partisans" (capitalized), and stuck henceforward (the adjective "Yugoslav" is used sometimes in exclusively non- Yugoslav sources to distinguish them from other partisan movements). Between January 1942 and November 1942, the movement's full official name was briefly National Liberation Partisan and Volunteer Army of Yugoslavia ( Narodnooslobodilačka partizanska i dobrovoljačka vojska Jugoslavije, NOP i DVJ). The changes were meant to reflect
4200-567: The 17th century (in 1690). Most settled in what is now Hungary, with the lesser part settling in western Vojvodina. All Serbs in the Habsburg monarchy gained the status of a recognized nation with extensive rights, in exchange for providing a border militia (in the Military Frontier ) that could be mobilized against invaders from the south (such as the Ottomans), as well as in case of civil unrest in
4350-749: The 1910 census, the last census conducted in Austria-Hungary, the population of Vojvodina included 510,754 (33.8%) Serbs; 425,672 (28.1%) Hungarians; and 324,017 (21.4%) Germans. At the end of World War I , the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. On 29 October 1918, Syrmia became a part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs . On 31 October 1918, the Banat Republic was proclaimed in Timișoara . The government of Hungary recognized its independence, but it
4500-653: The Assembly of Syrmia also proclaimed the unification of Syrmia with Serbia. On 1 December 1918, Vojvodina (as part of the Kingdom of Serbia) officially became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . Between 1929 and 1941, the region was part of the Danube Banovina , a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . Its capital city was Novi Sad. Apart from the core territories of Vojvodina and Baranja, it included significant parts of Šumadija and Braničevo regions south of
4650-418: The Balkans. (... ) Considering that the Partisans had given us such a generous measure of assistance at almost no cost to ourselves, it was of high importance to ensure that their resistance was maintained and not allowed to flag. The partisan army had long since grown into a regular fighting formation comparable to the armies of other small States, and infinitely superior to most of them, and especially to
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4800-402: The Brezovica woods between Sisak and Zagreb, forming the 1st Sisak Partisan Detachment . The first uprising led by Tito occurred two weeks later, in Serbia. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia formally decided to launch an armed uprising on 4 July, a date which was later marked as Fighter's Day – a public holiday in the SFR Yugoslavia . One Žikica Jovanović Španac shot the first bullet of
4950-409: The Bulgarian administration (9th century), local Bulgarian dukes, Salan and Glad , ruled over the region. Salan's residence was Titel, while that of Glad was possibly in the rumoured rampart of Galad or perhaps in the Kladovo (Gladovo) in eastern Serbia. Glad's descendant was the duke Ahtum, another local ruler from the 11th century who opposed the establishment of Hungarian rule over the region. In
5100-508: The Chetniks from carrying out overt resistance, however the Partisans were not fazed and continued overt resistance which disrupted Axis forces, but led to significant civilian casualties. Later in the conflict the Partisans were able to win the moral, as well as limited material support of the western Allies , who until then had supported General Draža Mihailović 's Chetnik Forces, but were finally convinced of their collaboration fighting by many military missions dispatched to both sides during
5250-468: The Chetniks, Tito's pan-ethnic policies seemed anti-Serbian, whereas the Chetniks' royalism was anathema to the communists. In the early part of the war Partisan forces were predominantly composed of Serbs. In that period names of Muslim and Croat commanders of Partisan forces had to be changed to protect them from their predominantly Serb colleagues. After the German retreat forced by the Soviet-Bulgarian offensive in Serbia, North Macedonia, and Kosovo in
5400-437: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia arrived in Belgrade in late May, and this was of great importance for the development of the resistance in Yugoslavia. After their arrival, the Central Committee held conferences with local party officials. The decision for preparing the struggle in Serbia issued on June 23, 1941 at the meeting of the Provincial Committee for Serbia. On July 5, a Communist Party proclamation appeared that called upon
5550-406: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia. In 1941, Partisan forces in Serbia and Montenegro had around 55,000 fighters, but only 4,500 succeeded to escape to Bosnia. On 21 December 1941 they formed the 1st Proletarian Assault Brigade ( 1. Proleterska Udarna Brigada ) – the first regular Partisan military unit, capable of operating outside its local area. In 1942 Partisan detachments officially merged into
5700-436: The County of Bač. Later, the civil administration was expanded to other (mostly northern) parts of the region, while southern parts remained under military administration. The eastern part of this area was held again by the Ottoman Empire between 1787 and 1788, during the Russo-Turkish War . In 1716, Vienna temporarily forbade settlement by Hungarians and Jews in the area, while large numbers of German speakers were settled in
5850-416: The Danube (but not the capital city of Belgrade ). Between 1941 and 1944, during World War II , Nazi Germany and its allies, Hungary and the Independent State of Croatia , occupied Vojvodina and divided it. Bačka and Baranja were annexed by Hungary and Syrmia was included in the Independent State of Croatia. A smaller Danube Banovina (including Banat, Šumadija, and Braničevo) was designated as part of
6000-449: The German Nazi leadership. Before the executions, the Germans smuggled them to Germany, where they were immediately assigned as military officers in the SS, despite the Hungarian government's request for their extradition from Germany to carry out the sentence. The Hungarian occupational authorities began raiding towns and villages in southern Bačka as early as 4 January 1942, ostensibly as a means of suppressing Partisan resistance, though
6150-410: The Germans. Hungary's leaders may also have been motivated to pursue a harsh response to demonstrate that they were strong enough to deal with Serb resistance and Jewish "subversion", and thus convince Germany that Hungary was competent enough to control the Banat, which had been part of the country before World War I. According to the Holocaust scholar Mark Levene, the raid "may well have been intended as
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6300-452: The Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary. Wallachian Right became the point of reference in the 18th century for military settlement in lowland region. The Vlachs who settled there were actually mainly Serbs, although there were also Romanians while Aromanians lived in the urban areas. At the beginning of Habsburg rule, most of the region was integrated into the Military Frontier, while western parts of Bačka were put under civil administration within
6450-468: The Hungarian authority, 19,573 people were killed in Bačka, of which the majority of victims were of Serb, Jewish and Romani origin. When Axis occupation ended in 1944, the region was temporarily placed under a military administration (1944–45) run by the new communist authorities. During and after the military administration, several thousands of citizens were killed. Victims were mostly ethnic Germans, but Hungarian and Serb populations were also killed. Both
6600-523: The Hungarian military estimated that there were no more than 110 Partisans operating in all of Vojvodina, though in reality, the true figure was closer to 40. On 4 January 1942, several dozen Partisans from the Šajkaška Partisan detachment were found hiding at a farm near Žabalj . They were engaged by the Hungary military, and in the ensuing clash, 10 Hungarian soldiers and seven Partisans were killed. The remaining Partisans were arrested and deported to German-occupied Serbia. The Hungarian General Staff seized on
6750-407: The Hungarian noblemen from the region joined forces against him and defeated the Serbian troops in the summer of 1527. Emperor Jovan Nenad was assassinated and his state collapsed. After the fall of emperor's state, the supreme military commander of Jovan Nenad's army, Radoslav Čelnik , established his own temporary state in the region of Syrmia, where he ruled as Ottoman vassal. A few decades later,
6900-510: The Hungarian parliament the prime minister László Bárdossy sent a commission of inquiry to investigate. That investigation supported the story that the army had been battling partisans. A further investigation by Bárdossy's successor Miklós Kállay came to similar conclusions. In 1943, Hungary organized a trial of several officers who were among those responsible for the raids leading to prison terms ranging from 10 to 15 years. Four of those charged escaped to Germany before their sentencing. After
7050-404: The Interior , Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer , wrote that 3,755 people lost their lives in the raid. The historian Rudolph Rummel places the number of deaths resulting from the raid at 3,200. The Holocaust scholar Leni Yahil writes that 4,116 individuals were killed – 2,842 Serbs, 1,250 Jews, 13 Russians and 11 Hungarians. The historian Zvonimir Golubović places the total number of civilians killed in
7200-419: The Muslims, with thousands of them killed. A rebellion began in June 1941 in Herzegovina . On 27 July 1941, a Partisan-led uprising began in the area of Drvar and Bosansko Grahovo . It was a coordinated effort from both sides of the Una River in the territory of southeastern Lika and southwestern Bosanska, and succeeded in transferring key NDH territory under rebel control. On 10 August in Stanulović,
7350-444: The National Liberation Army ( Narodnooslobodilačka vojska ). The name change also reflects the fact that the latter superseded in importance the partisan detachments themselves. Shortly before the end of the war, in March 1945, all resistance forces were reorganized into the regular armed force of Yugoslavia and renamed Yugoslav Army. It would keep this name until 1951, when it was renamed the Yugoslav People's Army . On 6 April 1941,
7500-403: The Partisan threat, and attempted to destroy the resistance in what Yugoslav historiographers defined as seven major enemy offensives. These are: It was the nature of partisan resistance that operations against it must either eliminate it altogether or leave it potentially stronger than before. This had been shown by the sequel to each of the previous five offensives from which, one after another,
7650-504: The Partisans. The amnesty would be offered again after German withdrawal from Belgrade on 21 November 1944 and on 15 January 1945. By the middle of 1943 partisan resistance to the Germans and their allies had grown from the dimensions of a mere nuisance to those of a major factor in the general situation. In many parts of occupied Europe the enemy was suffering losses at the hands of partisans that he could ill afford. Nowhere were these losses heavier than in Yugoslavia. The Partisans staged
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#17328524759527800-505: The People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (NOV i POJ) with an estimated 236,000 soldiers in December 1942. Partisan numbers from Serbia would be diminished until 1943 when the Partisan movement gained upswing by spreading the fight against the axis. Increase of number of Partisans in Serbia, similarly to other republics, came partly in response to Tito's offer of amnesty to all collaborators on 17 August 1944. At that point tens of thousands of Chetniks switched sides to
7950-439: The Serbian people to struggle against the invaders. Western Serbia was chosen as the base of the uprising , which later spread to other parts of Serbia. A short-lived republic was created in the liberated west, the first liberated territory in Europe. The uprising was suppressed by German forces by 29 November 1941. The Main National Liberation Committee for Serbia is believed to have been founded in Užice on 17 November 1941. It
8100-402: The Soviet Union in June. A large-scale uprising was launched in July, later joined by Draža Mihailović 's Chetniks ; this led to the creation of the short-lived Republic of Užice . The Axis mounted a series of offensives in response but failed to completely destroy the highly mobile Partisans and their leadership. By late 1943, the Allies had shifted their support from Mihailović to Tito as
8250-437: The Tisza, where they were shot and their bodies thrown into the river. When the ice thawed, the corpses of those killed in the raid floated down the Danube and the Tisza. The Hungarian news media denounced the raid as unparalleled in the country's military history. The Hungarian government also condemned the killings, vowing that the perpetrators would be brought to justice. In a contemporary correspondence, Hungary's Minister of
8400-616: The Vojvodina parliament is composed of the following political parties: Serbian Progressive Party , Socialist Party of Serbia and Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians . The current president of Vojvodinian government is Igor Mirović ( Serbian Progressive Party ), while the president of the provincial Assembly is István Pásztor ( Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians ). Vojvodina is divided into seven districts . They are regional centers of state authority, but have no powers of their own; they present purely administrative divisions. The seven districts are further subdivided into 37 municipalities and
8550-404: The Yugoslav collective presidency – were transferred to the control of Belgrade, the capital. The province still had its own parliament and government, and some other autonomous functions as well. According to Đorđe Tomić, this is an example of a phantom border . The fall of Milošević in 2000 created a new political climate in Vojvodina. Following talks between the political parties, the level of
8700-419: The Yugoslav monarchy, offered sporadic resistance during the invasion, but were largely inactive for much of the occupation, maintaining some covert activity only. Before the war, Bačka had been home to around 15,000 Jews. This constituted more than one-fifth of Yugoslavia's pre-war Jewish population. Moreover, more than 90 percent of the Jews living in the Hungarian-occupied territories of Yugoslavia hailed from
8850-752: The area governed by the Military Administration in Serbia . The administrative center of this smaller province was Smederevo . But, Banat was a separate autonomous region ruled by its ethnic German minority. The occupying powers committed numerous crimes against the civilian population, especially against Serbs, Jews and Roma; the Jewish population of Vojvodina was almost completely killed or deported. In total, Axis occupational authorities killed about 50,000 citizens of Vojvodina (mostly Serbs, Jews and Roma) while more than 280,000 people were interned, arrested, violated or tortured. Such crimes in varying regions of Vojvodina were carried out by Nazi Germans, Ustaše and Hungarian Axis forces. Many historians and authors describe
9000-409: The area. Most of the Hungarians left the region during the Ottoman conquest and early period of Ottoman administration, so the population of Vojvodina in Ottoman times was predominantly Serbs (who comprised an absolute majority of Vojvodina at the time), with significant presence of Muslims of various ethnic backgrounds. After the defeat of the Kingdom of Hungary at Mohács by the Ottoman Empire ,
9150-406: The autumn of 1944, the conscription of Serbs, Macedonians, and Kosovar Albanians increased significantly. By late 1944, the total forces of the Partisans numbered 650,000 men and women organized in four field armies and 52 divisions , which engaged in conventional warfare . By April 1945, the Partisans numbered over 800,000. The movement was consistently referred to as the "Partisans" throughout
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#17328524759529300-419: The backing of the USSR , and as the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact was still in force, he was compelled to wait. During the April invasion of Yugoslavia, the leadership of the Communist Party was in Zagreb , together with Josip Broz Tito. After a month, they left for Belgrade . While the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union was in effect, the communists refrained from open conflict with
9450-434: The base of the statue reads: Sećanje je spomenik tvrđi od kamena. Ako smo ljudi oprostiti moramo, zaboraviti ne smemo. Memory is a monument harder than stone. If we are human, we must forgive, but not forget Similar statues, also created by Soldatović, exist in Žabalj and Čurug. Commemorative ceremonies are held annually in Novi Sad and the other massacre sites. In 2022, the Serbian Orthodox Church canonized
9600-440: The campaign on 7 July in the Bela Crkva incident . The first Zagreb- Sesvete partisan group was formed in Dubrava in July 1941. In August 1941, 7 Partisan Detachments were formed in Dalmatia with the role of spreading the uprising. On 26 August 1941, 21 members of the 1st Split Partisan Detachment were executed by firing squad after being captured by Italian and Ustaše forces. A number of other partisan units were formed in
9750-496: The chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces , arrived in Budapest requesting that the entire Royal Hungarian Army be moved to the Eastern Front . Hungarian Prime Minister László Bárdossy declined, and in order to justify this decision, sought to demonstrate that Hungarian troops were desperately needed in the occupied territories. The Hungarian General Staff requested that the occupational authorities provide proof of an imminent, large-scale Partisan revolt in Bačka to show
9900-402: The city's main cultural centres. Many died during their interrogation. Temperatures reached −29 °C (−20 °F). Victims were brought to an area known as the Štrand , along the Danube, and shot with machine guns. Their killers then broke up the frozen river's ice sheets with artillery fire and tossed the bodies into the water. According to another account, the victims were forced to tread
10050-466: The civilian populations. Following the Habsburg-Russian and Serb victory over the Hungarians in 1849, a new administrative territory was created in the region in November 1849, in accordance with a decision made by the Austrian emperor . By this decision, the Serbian autonomous region created in 1848 was transformed into the new Austrian crown land known as Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar . It consisted of Banat, Bačka and Srem, excluding
10200-419: The combined Anglo-American forces were holding in Italy south of Rome. The Germans had been thrown into some confusion after the collapse of Italy and the Patriots had gained control of large stretches of the coast. We had not, however, seized the opportunity. The Germans had recovered and were driving the Partisans out bit by bit. The main reason for this was the artificial line of responsibility which ran through
10350-449: The consent of the two Provincial Assemblies. The 1974 Serbian constitution, adopted at the same time, reiterated that "the Socialist Republic of Serbia comprises the Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo , which originated in the common struggle of nations and nationalities of Yugoslavia in the National Liberation War (the Second World War) and socialist revolution". In 1990s, during
10500-448: The constitution of the Serbian Voivodship ( Serbian Duchy ), a Serbian autonomous region within the Austrian Empire . The Serbian Voivodship consisted of Srem, Bačka, Banat, and Baranja . The head of the metropolitanate of Sremski Karlovci , Josif Rajačić , was elected patriarch , while Stevan Šupljikac was chosen as first voivod (duke). The ethnic war erupted violently in the area, with both sides committing atrocities against
10650-401: The continent. According to the treaty, the western part of Vojvodina passed to Habsburgs. The eastern part (eastern Syrmia and Province of Tamışvar ) remained in Ottoman hands until Austrian conquest in 1716. This new border change was ratified by the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718. During the Great Serb Migration , Serbs from Ottoman territories settled in the Habsburg monarchy at the end of
10800-591: The course of the war. To gather intelligence , agents of the western Allies were infiltrated into both the Partisans and the Chetniks. The intelligence gathered by liaisons to the resistance groups was crucial to the success of supply missions and was the primary influence on Allied strategy in Yugoslavia . The search for intelligence ultimately resulted in the demise of the Chetniks and their eclipse by Tito's Partisans. In 1942, although supplies were limited, token support
10950-410: The creation of the NDH, Italian governorate of Montenegro and Nedic's Serbia and the annexations of Yugoslav territory by the various Axis countries were incompatible with international law in force at that time. The occupying forces instituted such severe burdens on the local populace that the Partisans came not only to enjoy widespread support but for many were the only option for survival. Early in
11100-467: The crown land. In 1860, the new province was abolished and most of it (with exception of Syrmia) was again integrated into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary . Vojvodina remained Austrian Crown land until 1860, when Emperor Franz Joseph decided that it would be Hungarian Crown land again. After 1867, the Kingdom of Hungary became one of two self-governing parts of Austria-Hungary , and the territory
11250-695: The division of Yugoslavia between the Axis powers and the Independent State of Croatia . The largest part of Serbia was organized into the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia and as such it was the only example of military regime in occupied Europe. The Military Committee of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party for Serbia was formed in mid-May 1941. The Central Committee of
11400-548: The early stage of the war the initial preponderance of Serbs in the Partisans meant in effect a Serbian civil war had broken out. A similar civil war existed within the Croatian national corpus with the competing national narratives provided by the Ustaše and Partisans. In the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the cause of Serb rebellion was the Ustaše policy of genocide, deportations, forced conversions and mass killings of Serbs , as
11550-549: The effects of being wounded. These events were staged primarily for public consumption. More than 8,000 Hungarian soldiers, gendarmes and border guards participated in the raid. It began in the town of Čurug on 6 January, with suspected Partisans, including women and children, being removed to barns, storage buildings, and municipal buildings. Although some suspects were released, between 500 and 1,000 people were killed and their bodies stripped of all valuables. The raid moved onto other local settlements such as Gospođinci and Titel
11700-524: The extent of Chetnik collaboration became evident, and the Partisans received official recognition at the Tehran Conference . In Autumn 1944, the Partisans and the Soviet Red Army liberated Belgrade following the Belgrade Offensive . By the end of the war, the Partisans had gained control of the entire country as well as Trieste and Carinthia . After the war, the Partisans were reorganized into
11850-803: The fight, our victory is assured. His reports contained two important observations. The first was that the Partisans were courageous and aggressive in battling the German 1st Mountain and 104th Light Division, had suffered significant casualties, and required support. The second observation was that the entire German 1st Mountain Division had traveled from Russia by railway through Chetnik-controlled territory. British intercepts (ULTRA) of German message traffic confirmed Chetnik timidity. All in all, intelligence reports resulted in increased Allied interest in Yugoslavia air operations and shifted policy. In September 1943, at Churchill's request, Brigadier General Fitzroy Maclean
12000-464: The following day. Between 6,000 and 7,000 people that were considered "suspicious" were arrested and taken to have their papers examined. Others were detained on account that they had no papers. Most were released, but at least 40 were taken to the banks of the Danube and shot. "The massacre was conducted systematically," the historian Leni Yahil writes, "street by street." Many of the soldiers were visibly intoxicated. Survivor accounts, delivered after
12150-526: The historical record shows that the Hungarian Government was attempting to improve its geopolitical standing vis-à-vis Germany . The first town to be raided was Čurug , followed by Gospođinci , Titel , Temerin , Đurđevo and Žabalj . The victims were seemingly detained at random while conducting everyday activities. On 20 January, the city of Novi Sad ( Hungarian : Újvidék ) was surrounded and placed on curfew; its telephone lines were cut. Over
12300-530: The ice sheet was shattered by shelling from the shore. Some were pushed into holes in the ice sheet, causing them to drown or succumb to hypothermia , while others were shot in the street. The Hungarian government and news media condemned the raid, calling for an immediate investigation. In 1943, the Hungarians conducted a mass trial of those suspected of organizing the raid, handing down prison terms ranging from 10 to 15 years. The convicts escaped to Germany. After
12450-495: The ice sheets, which were then shattered by shelling from the shore, causing them to fall into the freezing water and drown. The killings only ceased after four days, when the city's Lord Lieutenant, László Deák , bypassed the curfew and alerted the authorities in Budapest. He returned with orders that the massacre was to come to an immediate halt. Feketehalmy-Czeydner ordered that all executions be stopped by 9:00 p.m. Deák's mother
12600-593: The incident, using it as a pretext for launching attacks throughout the region that were intended to deter non-Hungarians from joining the resistance. On 5 January, Ferenc Szombathelyi , the Chief of the Hungarian General Staff , ordered punitive raids against the Partisans of Bačka. The order coincided with German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop 's visit to Budapest on 6 January. Several days later, Generalfeldmarschall ( Field marshal ) Wilhelm Keitel ,
12750-553: The influence and suggestion of Brigadier-General Fitzroy Maclean) with the aim to provide increased supplies and tactical air support for Marshal Tito's Partisan forces. During a meeting with Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Combined Chiefs of Staff of 24 November 1943, Winston Churchill pointed out that: It was a lamentable fact that virtually no supplies had been conveyed by sea to the 222,000 followers of Tito. ... These stalwarts were holding as many Germans in Yugoslavia as
12900-614: The investigation as a method of distinguishing his regime from that of Nazi Germany. Some Serbian historians, such as Golubović and Aleksandar Veljić, have claimed that Horthy himself was aware of the raids and approved them being carried out. Horthy was a witness at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II but, despite strong demands from Yugoslavia , the Americans and the Soviets favored dropping any charges. After questions were raised in
13050-478: The largest in importance was a Gepid state, which had its capital in Sirmium. According to the 7th-century Miracles of Saint Demetrius , Avars gave the region of Syrmia to a Bulgar leader named Kuber circa 680. The Bulgars of Kuber moved south with Maurus to Macedonia where they co-operated with Tervel in the 8th century. Slavs settled today's Vojvodina in the 6th and 7th centuries, before some of them crossed
13200-461: The massacre, explored the topic in his 1972 novel The Book About Blam ( Serbo-Croatian : Knjiga o Blamu ). It is also described in Tibor Cseres ' 1991 book Blood Feud in Bačka ( Hungarian : Vérbosszú Bácskában ). In 1971, a commemorative statue by the sculptor Jovan Soldatović was erected in Novi Sad, on the spot where the bodies of victims were tossed into the Danube. The inscription at
13350-528: The movement's character as a "volunteer army". In November 1942, the movement was renamed into the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia ( Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odredi Jugoslavije, NOV i POJ), a name which it held until the end of the war. This last official name is the full name most associated with the Partisans, and reflects the fact that the proletarian brigades and other mobile units were organized into
13500-514: The new regime of the Independent State of Croatia . In these first two months of occupation, they extended their underground network and began amassing weapons. In early May 1941, a so-called May consultations of Communist Party officials from across the country, who sought to organize the resistance against the occupiers, was held in Zagreb. In June 1941, a meeting of the Central Committee of KPJ
13650-503: The newly created Italian governorate of Montenegro , and was granted the kingship in the Independent State of Croatia, though wielding little real power within it. Hungary dispatched the Hungarian Third Army and occupied and annexed the Yugoslav regions of Baranja, Bačka, Međimurje and Prekmurje . Bulgaria , meanwhile, annexed nearly all of Macedonia , and small areas of eastern Serbia and Kosovo. The dissolution of Yugoslavia,
13800-434: The next several days, the occupational authorities went about arresting "suspicious" individuals. More than 1,000 of the city's residents were killed by the time the raid ended. The victims in both Novi Sad and the wider region were mostly Serbs and Jews , though several Romani , Rusyns , Russians and Hungarians were killed as well. In Novi Sad, victims were forced to march across the frozen Danube , only to perish when
13950-419: The number of Croats which have left Serbia under political pressure of Milošević's regime might be between 20,000 and 40,000. According to Petar Kuntić of Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina , 50,000 Croats were pressured to move out from Serbia during the Yugoslav wars. Under the rule of Serbian president Slobodan Milošević , a series of protests against Vojvodina's party leadership took place during
14100-690: The occupation, German forces would hang or shoot indiscriminately, including women, children and the elderly, up to 100 local inhabitants for every one German soldier killed. While these measures for suppressing communist-led resistance were issued in all German-occupied territory, they were only strictly enforced in Serbia. Two of the most significant atrocities by the German forces were the massacre of 2,000 civilians in Kraljevo and 3,000 in Kragujevac . The formula of 100 hostages shot for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages shot for every wounded German soldier
14250-464: The only languages permitted in almost all secondary schools, and Serbo-Croatian books, newspapers and periodicals were virtually banned. Despite this, most Serbs and Croats that had lived in the Hungarian-occupied territories prior to 1918 retained their citizenship rights as Hungarians, and some lower-level non-Hungarian public employees retained their jobs. On 14 December 1941, Bačka, along with
14400-807: The other Hungarian-occupied areas of Yugoslavia, referred to by Hungary as the "Recovered Southern Territories" (Hungarian: Délvidék ), were officially annexed and formally incorporated into Hungary. Small-scale armed resistance broke out in Bačka in the second half of 1941 and the Hungarian military reacted with heavy repressive measures. More than 300 prisoners were executed in September 1941 alone. Thousands of Serbs and Jews were detained in concentration camps that had been established in Ada , Bačka Topola , Begeč , Odžaci , Bečej , Subotica and Novi Sad , as well as at Pécs and Baja , in Hungary-proper. The communist -led Partisan resistance movement of Josip Broz Tito
14550-404: The other half by the post-war Communist authorities. The region was politically restored in 1944 (incorporating Syrmia, Banat, Bačka and Baranja) and became an autonomous province of Serbia in 1945. Instead of the previous name (Danube Banovina), the region regained its historical name of Vojvodina, while its capital city remained Novi Sad. When the final borders of Vojvodina were defined, Baranja
14700-493: The partisan brigades and divisions had emerged stronger in experience and armament than they had been before, with the backing of a population which had come to see no alternative to resistance but death, imprisonment, or starvation. There could be no half-measures; the Germans left nothing behind them but a trail of ruin. What in other circumstances might possibly have remained the purely ideological war that reactionaries abroad said it
14850-574: The pre-war Jugoslav army, in tactical skill, fieldcraft, leadership, fighting spirit and fire-power. With Allied air support ( Operation Flotsam ) and assistance from the Red Army , in the second half of 1944 the Partisans turned their attention to Serbia, which had seen relatively little fighting since the fall of the Republic of Užice in 1941. On 20 October, the Red Army and the Partisans liberated Belgrade in
15000-543: The province's autonomy was somewhat increased by the omnibus law in 2002. The Vojvodina provincial assembly adopted a new statute on 15 October 2008, which, after being partially amended, was approved by the Parliament of Serbia . On 28 January 2013, as an answer to the proposal of the Third Serbia political organization from Novi Sad to abolish the autonomy of Vojvodina, the pro-autonomist Vojvodina's Party performed
15150-485: The province. Modern Vojvodina is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, with some 26 ethnic groups and six official languages. Less than two million people, nearly 27% of Serbia's population, live in the province. Vojvodina is also the Serbian word for voivodeship , a type of duchy overseen by a voivode . The Serbian Voivodeship , a precursor to modern Vojvodina, was an Austrian province from 1849 to 1860. Its official name
15300-461: The punishment of the culprits and their prosecution, during which four officers were sentenced to death. The four Hungarian officers justified their open refusal of the orders of the Hungarian military leadership and their obedience to the German command by citing their ethnic German origins and their allegiance to Germany. Referring to this, they immediately sought asylum from Nazi Germany. Their requests were met with understanding and consideration from
15450-550: The raid at 3,809. This figure is accepted by the Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer . The following table, composed by Golubović, lists the victims according to their gender, ethnicity and the place that they were killed: In 1943, Regent of Hungary Miklós Horthy ordered an investigation into the massacres and charges were brought against some of those that had conducted them. Those charged fled to Nazi Germany and returned only after German forces occupied Hungary in 1944 . Horthy used
15600-441: The raid in southern Bačka remains the most infamous. The killings have been referred to as the Novi Sad massacre, the Újvidék massacre, or simply The Raid ( Serbo-Croatian : Racija ). In its aftermath, the historian Deborah S. Cornelius writes, "relations between Hungary and Serbia have never been the same." Decades hence, the raid continues to feature prominently in the Hungarian popular imagination, more so than most events from
15750-527: The region fell into a period of anarchy and civil wars. In 1526 Jovan Nenad , a leader of Serb mercenaries, established his rule in Bačka , northern Banat and a small part of Syrmia . He created an ephemeral independent state, with Subotica as its capital. At the peak of his power, Jovan Nenad proclaimed himself Serbian Emperor in Subotica. Taking advantage of the extremely confused military and political situation,
15900-524: The region from Bavaria and southern areas, in order to repopulate it and develop agriculture. From 1782, Protestant Hungarians and ethnic Germans settled in larger numbers. During the 1848–49 revolutions , Vojvodina was a site of a war between Serbs and Hungarians, due to the opposite national conceptions of the two peoples. At the May Assembly in Sremski Karlovci (13–15 May 1848), Serbs declared
16050-753: The region in 1944, together with the defeated German army. Most of those who remained in the region (about 150,000) were sent to some of the villages cordoned off as prisons. It is estimated that some 48,447 Germans died in the camps from disease, hunger, malnutrition, mistreatment, and cold. Some 8,049 Germans were killed by partisans during military administration in Vojvodina after October 1944. It has also been estimated that post-war communist authorities killed some 15,000–20,000 Hungarians and some 23,000–24,000 Serbs during Communist purges in Serbia in 1944–45 . According to Dragoljub Živković , some 47,000 ethnic Serbs were murdered in Vojvodina between 1941 and 1948. About half were killed by occupational Axis forces and
16200-587: The region was established again in 1867 and over entire region in 1882, after abolition of the Habsburg Military Frontier). The regional demographic balance started changing in the 11th century when Magyars began to replace the local Slavic population. But from the 14th century, the balance changed again in favour of the Slavs when Serbian refugees fleeing from territories conquered by the Ottoman army settled in
16350-520: The region. The Hungarian government had passed anti-Semitic laws in 1939, and following the outbreak of the war, these were applied in the occupied and annexed territories. After the violence of the initial occupation, no further massacres of Jews occurred in Bačka for the remainder of 1941, though the Jewish community was subjected to a string of discriminatory measures, such as the confiscation of property, arbitrary detention and forced labour. By early 1942,
16500-584: The rivers Sava and Danube and settled in the Balkans. Slavic tribes that lived in the territory of present-day Vojvodina included Abodrites, Severans, Braničevci and Timočani. In the 9th century, after the fall of the Avar state, the first forms of Slavic statehood emerged in this area. The first Slavic states that ruled over this region included the Bulgarian Empire, Great Moravia and Ljudevit's Pannonian Duchy. During
16650-430: The same day and continued the day after. Over the next three days, additional killings took place in the towns of Temerin and Žabalj . Civilians were rounded up at random and taken from their homes and businesses during their workday and while they were engaged in regular activities, even weddings. On 20 January, Novi Sad was completely surrounded and placed on curfew. Its telephone and telegraph lines were cut. The city
16800-583: The southern parts of these regions which were part of the Military Frontier with significant Serbian populations. An Austrian governor seated in Temeschwar ruled the area, while the title of Voivod belonged to the emperor himself. The full title of the emperor was " Grand Voivod of the Voivodship of Serbia" (German: Großwoiwode der Woiwodschaft Serbien ). German and Serbian were the official languages of
16950-478: The summer and autumn of 1988, which forced it to resign. Eventually Vojvodina and Kosovo had to accept Serbia's constitutional amendments that practically dismissed the autonomy of the provinces in Serbia. Vojvodina and Kosovo lost elements of statehood in September 1990 when the new constitution of the Republic of Serbia was adopted. Vojvodina was still referred to as an autonomous province of Serbia, but most of its autonomous powers – including, crucially, its vote on
17100-605: The summer of 1941, including in Moslavina and Kalnik . An uprising occurred in Serbia during the summer, led by Tito, when the Republic of Užice was created, but it was defeated by the Axis forces by December 1941, and support for the Partisans in Serbia thereafter dropped. It was a different story for Serbs in Axis occupied Croatia who turned to the multi-ethnic Partisans, or the Serb royalist Chetniks. The journalist Tim Judah notes that in
17250-488: The throne. The country was overrun in less than two weeks, occupied and partitioned among its neighbours. The area that constitutes the present-day province of Vojvodina , in northern Serbia, was divided between Germany, Hungary and the Axis puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia ( Croatian : Nezavisna Država Hrvatska ; NDH), which was established shortly after the invasion. The Germans assumed direct control of
17400-400: The two countries. In June 2013, Hungarian President János Áder formally apologized for the war crimes that the Hungarian military had committed against Serbian civilians during the war. Germany , Italy and Hungary invaded Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, in response to a coup d'état that deposed the country's regent , Paul , and hastened the ascent of his underage cousin, Peter to
17550-596: The village of Čelarevo archaeologists have also found traces of people who practised the Judaic religion. Bunardžić dated Avar-Bulgar graves excavated in Čelarevo, containing skulls with Mongolian features and Judaic symbols, to the late 8th and 9th centuries. Erdely and Vilkhnovich consider the graves to belong to the Kabars who eventually broke ties with the Khazar Empire between the 830s and 862. (Three other Khazar tribes joined
17700-662: The war crimes committed against civilian Serbs and Jewish people during the Hungarian occupation of Yugoslav territories . Some days earlier members of the Serbian Parliament adopted a declaration, which condemned the massacres and application of the principle of collective guilt against Hungarians in Vojvodina at the end of the Second World War. Of the massacres perpetrated by the Hungarian occupational authorities in Yugoslavia,
17850-474: The war, attest to the brutality of the killings. A woman recalled how, on 23 April, a soldier entered her apartment, demanding to know her family's religious affiliation. The woman told him that she and her family were Orthodox Christians . Infuriated, the soldier called her a "stinking Serb" and killed her five sons. Thousands of men, women and children were imprisoned and interrogated at the Sokolski Dom, one of
18000-533: The war, numbering around 650,000 in late 1944 and organized in four field armies and 52 divisions . The main stated objectives of the Partisans were the liberation of Yugoslav lands from occupying forces and the creation of a federal, multi-ethnic socialist state in Yugoslavia. The Partisans were organized on the initiative of Tito following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, and began an active guerrilla campaign against occupying forces after Germany invaded
18150-436: The war, several trials were held in Hungary and Yugoslavia , resulting in the conviction and execution of a number of key organizers. The final court proceedings relating to the raid took place in 2011, when Sándor Képíró was tried and acquitted of murdering over 30 civilians in Novi Sad. The raid has been fictionalized in literature and film in both Serbia and Hungary . The killings continue to strain relations between
18300-449: The war, some of the individuals responsible for the raids, including Feketehalmy-Czeydner, were tried again by the new communist government of Hungary (which sentenced them to death or to life in prison) and again in Yugoslavia, where they were sentenced to death again, and executed. Horthy who was, according to Yugoslav/Serbian historians, among those responsible for the raids, was never indicted or tried. In September 2006, Efraim Zuroff of
18450-417: The war-time Axis occupational authorities and the post-war communist authorities ran concentration/prison camps in the territory of Vojvodina (see List of concentration and internment camps ). While war-time prisoners in these camps were mostly Jews, Serbs and communists, post-war camps were formed for ethnic Germans (historically known as Danube Swabians ). Most Vojvodina ethnic Germans (about 200,000) fled
18600-455: The war. However, due to frequent changes in size and structural reorganizations, the Partisans throughout their history held four full official names (translated here from Serbo-Croatian to English): The movement was originally named National Liberation Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia ( Narodnooslobodilački partizanski odredi Jugoslavije, NOPOJ) and held that name from June 1941 to January 1942. Because of this, their short name became simply
18750-484: The war. It was depicted in Hungarian director András Kovács ' 1966 film Cold Days ( Hungarian : Hideg napok ). It features prominently in Yugoslav writer Danilo Kiš 's 1962 novel Psalm 44 ( Serbo-Croatian : Psalm 44 ) and his 1972 novel Hourglass ( Serbo-Croatian : Peščanik ). The massacre held special significance for Kiš as his father was nearly killed during it. The Yugoslav writer Aleksandar Tišma , who narrowly escaped being rounded up and killed in
18900-505: The whole region was added to the Ottoman Empire , which ruled over it until the end of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century, when it was incorporated into the Habsburg monarchy . The Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699, between Holy League and Ottoman Empire , marked the withdrawal of the Ottoman forces from Central Europe , and the supremacy of the Habsburg monarchy in that part of
19050-588: Was (and German propaganda did their utmost to support them) became a war for national preservation. So clear was this that no room was left for provincialism; Serbs and Croats and Slovenes, Macedonians, Bosnians, Christian and Moslem, Orthodox and Catholic, sank their differences in the sheer desperation of striving to remain alive. Partisans operated as a regular army that remained highly mobile across occupied Yugoslavia. Partisan units engaged in overt acts of resistance which led to significant reprisals against civilians by Axis forces. The killing of civilians discouraged
19200-408: Was 8,558 km (3,304 sq mi). The Hungarian occupational authorities resolved to "rebalance" the ethnic makeup of Bačka while the invasion was still underway. Within days of the invasion, Serb and Jewish homes were attacked and looted. On 14 April 1941, as many as 500 Serbs and Jews were killed, likely in accordance with previously assembled lists of people marked for death. Legislation
19350-509: Was a part of the Roman province of Dacia , Syrmia belonged to the Roman province of Pannonia . Bačka was not part of the Roman Empire and was populated and ruled by Sarmatian Iazyges . After the Romans were driven away from this region, various Indo-European and Turkic peoples and states ruled in the area. These peoples included Goths, Sarmatians, Huns, Gepids and Avars. For regional history,
19500-571: Was acquitted on all counts in July 2011. He died of natural causes two months later. Mass killings targeting Jews, such as those that occurred during the raid, were relatively uncommon in Hungary-proper and the occupied areas until October 1944, when the Germans assumed direct control of the country and the regions it had occupied , deporting hundreds of thousands of Jews to death camps. In June 2013, Hungarian President János Áder apologised in Belgrade for
19650-512: Was also held, at which it was decided to start preparations for the uprising. Operation Barbarossa , the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941. The extent of support for the Partisan movement varied according to region and nationality, reflecting the existential concerns of the local population and authorities. The first Partisan uprising occurred in Croatia on 22 June 1941, when forty Croatian communists staged an uprising in
19800-471: Was among the victims. "The randomness and senselessness of the operation were evident especially by the fact that it hit not one single functionary of the Yugoslav Communist Party," the historian Krisztián Ungváry writes. In Stari Bečej , the occupational authorities staged another "rebellion" and followed it up with further mass arrests. Around 200 people were detained and taken to the banks of
19950-458: Was assigned to Croatia, while the northern part of the Mačva region was assigned to Vojvodina. For decades, the province enjoyed only a small level of autonomy within Serbia. Under the 1974 Yugoslav constitution, it gained extensive rights of self-rule, as both Kosovo and Vojvodina were given de facto veto power in the Serbian and Yugoslav parliaments. Changes to their status could not be made without
20100-470: Was cut in one-half in February 1943 and removed altogether in the fall of that same year. Furthermore, Yugoslavia experienced a breakdown of law and order, with collaborationist militias roaming the countryside terrorizing the population. The government of the puppet Independent State of Croatia found itself unable to control its territory in the early stages of the occupation, resulting in a severe crackdown by
20250-460: Was divided into multiple areas of responsibility, with a different officer tasked with organizing the round-ups in each. Placards sprang up on buildings, warning citizens against going outdoors, except to buy food. Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner summoned the local authorities and announced that the Royal Hungary Army would "take charge and clean things up" over the next three days. The raid began
20400-533: Was established under German direction, which extended over much of the territory of today's Croatia and as well contained all the area of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and Syrmia region of modern-day Serbia . Mussolini's Italy occupied the remainder of Drava Banovina (annexed and renamed as the Province of Lubiana ), much of Zeta Banovina and large chunks of the coastal Dalmatia region (along with nearly all its Adriatic islands). It also gained control over
20550-575: Was given after the communist secret service tortured Nagy. Képíró, however, stated that as a police officer, his participation was limited merely to arresting civilians, and he did not take part in the executions or any other illegal activity. War crimes charges were subsequently brought against Képíró in a federal court in Budapest, for murders of civilians committed under his command during the January 1942 raids. His trial on those charges commenced in May 2011. Képíró
20700-547: Was incorporated into the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). A large number of Hungarians and ethnic Germans had remained in the areas despite the cession. Hungarian-occupied Bačka consisted of that part of the former Danube Banovina once bounded by the Hungarian–Yugoslav border to the north, the Danube to the south and west, and the Tisza to the east. The total area of Hungarian-occupied Bačka
20850-407: Was never strong in Bačka because the region's flat terrain did not lend itself to guerilla warfare , and because South Slavs , from whom the Partisans drew most of their recruits, made up only one third of the regional population. By the end of 1941, the Partisans of Bačka had largely been destroyed, as had their regional committee. The Chetniks , Serbian nationalist irregulars seeking to reinstate
21000-612: Was one of the four capital cities of the Roman Empire , and six Roman Emperors were born in this city or in its surroundings. The city was also the capital of several Roman administrative units, including Pannonia Inferior , Pannonia Secunda , the Diocese of Pannonia , and the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum . Roman rule lasted until the 5th century, after which the region came into the possession of various peoples and states. While Banat
21150-516: Was opposed by the German command in Belgrade, and subsequently fell through. More than 15,000 Hungarian colonists later settled the area, moving into the homes of the Serbs that were forced out. A policy of "systematic magyarization " was implemented within the occupied territories. "Less-desirable elements" of the population, such as Serbs, Croats and Jews, were discriminated against in matters of communication and education. Hungarian and German were
21300-479: Was parachuted to Tito's headquarters near Drvar to serve as a permanent, formal liaison to the Partisans. While the Chetniks were still occasionally supplied, the Partisans received the bulk of all future support. Thus, after the Tehran Conference the Partisans received official recognition as the legitimate national liberation force by the Allies, who subsequently set up the RAF Balkan Air Force (under
21450-489: Was returned again to Hungarian administration. In 1867, a new county system was introduced. This territory was organized among Bács-Bodrog , Torontál and Temes counties. The era following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was a period of economic flourishing. The Kingdom of Hungary had the second-fastest growing economy in Europe between 1867 and 1913, but ethnic relations were strained. According to
21600-500: Was sent equally to each. The new year would bring a change. The Germans were executing Operation Schwarz (the Fifth anti-Partisan offensive), one of a series of offensives aimed at the resistance fighters, when F.W.D. Deakin was sent by the British to gather information. On April 13, 1941, Winston Churchill sent his greetings to the Yugoslav people. In his greeting he stated: You are making
21750-543: Was short-lived. On 25 November 1918, the Great People's Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs in Banat, Bačka and Baranja in Novi Sad proclaimed the unification of Vojvodina ( Banat, Bačka and Baranja ) with the Kingdom of Serbia (The assembly numbered 757 deputies, of which 578 were Serbs , 84 Bunjevci , 62 Slovaks , 21 Rusyns , 6 Germans , 3 Šokci , 2 Croats and 1 Hungarian ). One day before this, on 24 November,
21900-544: Was soon passed requiring that all non-Hungarians and non-Germans who had moved to the area after 1918 be deported. The Hungarian occupational authorities expelled between 25,000 and 60,000 Serbs from Bačka, both colonists from the interwar period , as well as pre- World War I inhabitants. They were first interned in concentration camps before being deported to the German-occupied territory of Serbia. The Hungarians originally intended to expel as many as 150,000, but this plan
22050-434: Was the communist -led anti-fascist resistance to the Axis powers (chiefly Nazi Germany ) in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II . Led by Josip Broz Tito , the Partisans are considered to be Europe's most effective anti- Axis resistance movement during World War II. Primarily a guerrilla force at its inception, the Partisans developed into a large fighting force engaging in conventional warfare later in
22200-430: Was the body of the Partisan resistance in Serbian territory. The Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Serbia was held 9–12 November 1944. Tito's post-war government built numerous monuments and memorials in Serbia after the war. Vojvodina Vojvodina ( / ˌ v ɔɪ v ə ˈ d iː n ə / VOY -və- DEE -nə ; Serbian Cyrillic : Војводина , IPA: [vǒjvodina] ), officially
22350-617: Was the case elsewhere in the NDH. Resistance to communist leadership of the anti-Ustasha rebellion among the Serbs from Bosnia also developed in the form of the Chetnik movement and autonomous bands which were under command of Dragoljub Mihailović. Whereas the Partisans under Serb leadership were open to members of various nationalities, those in the Chetniks were hostile to Muslims and exclusively Serbian. The uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina started by Serbs in many places were acts of retaliation against
22500-474: Was to fight the occupying forces. Until British supplies began to arrive in appreciable quantities in 1944, the occupiers were the only source of arms. The other objective was to create a federal multi-ethnic communist state in Yugoslavia. To this end, the KPJ attempted to appeal to all the various ethnic groups within Yugoslavia, by preserving the rights of each group. The objectives of the rival resistance movement,
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